After five years of investigating cases of corruption and human rights abuses under former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's Truth and Dignity Commission is concluding its mandate, though many Tunisians say there is still much more to do.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has held private talks with his Rival, Rached Ghannouci, leader of the Ennahda party, after their fallout last summer. Meetings at the Carthage presidential palace and in Doha are said to be part of Qatar-mediated talks.

On Sunday 30th of September, the Kurdish autonomous region held an election. Voters chose from more than 700 candidates to win 111 seats in Kurdistan’s Parliament, a year after a failed independence referendum to separate from Iraq.

The two largest Iraqi Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), are likely to agree eventually on a presidential candidate, but in the meantime several hats are in the ring.

Eyewitnesses have said that the Kurdistan Democratic Party's political police, the Asayish have detained and beaten Faiez Abed Jahwareh, the Assyrian Mayor of the city of Alqosh in the Nineveh Plains. The Asayish officer reportedly declared that the KDP controls the area and "decides what happens in Alqosh".

Volunteer groups have taken on a leading role in supporting the thousands of people from the East Ghouta region, east of Damascus, who were displaced to Idlib and western Aleppo in March and April this year.

Lebanon heads to general elections for the first time in nine years. This is the first elections to include the 82k expat voters, totaling the total registered voters at 3.6 million. This election also sees a new Electoral system in which voters will vote twice, once for coalitions and once for the candidate.